- Learning to tune your guitar is important. An out-of-tune guitar sounds awful. Not only will it keep you from hearing when you play something right, an out-of-tune guitar will quickly discourage you. There are several ways to tune a guitar. For beginners, there's nothing better than a digital tuner. You can purchase one fairly cheap at any music store. Digital tuners tell you when a string on your guitar is tuned too low or too high, and it will show a green light when your string is in tune.
Tune your strings by tightening them to raise the pitch and loosening them to lower the pitch. Later, when your ear gets better, you can use a pitch pipe or tune your guitar to a reference tone without the use of a digital tuner. - Practice and memorize chords from the start. Chords are the foundation of music. The more chords you know, the more songs you will be able to play on the spur of the moment. You can purchase a chord dictionary from a music or book store. You can also find one online at no charge (see Resources). Keep a chord dictionary with you as you practice playing. Start with basic major and minor chords. There are more chords than you can probably learn in a lifetime, but if you make a habit of learning one or two a week, you'll increase your musical vocabulary immensely.
- Start with major and minor scales. Play them in as many positions as you can on the neck of your guitar. You can purchase a guitar scale book from a music or book store. Guitar scales are also available online at no charge (see Resources). Guitar scales not only build strength in your fingers but playing them will teach you the names of the notes on your guitar and where to find those notes in different locations. Scales are also a valuable aid to ear training. Many guitar players find them boring, but scales can quickly improve your guitar-playing abilities.
- Consider learning to read guitar tablature (see Resources). Knowing how to read tab will open doors to reading and writing your own music on guitar. Tablature is a system of musical notation for guitar players that uses a graph representing the six strings of your guitar. Numbers on those strings indicate the frets you should play. This is a system preferred by many guitar players because it seems more logical for, and suited to, guitar. There are many tablature books and websites that feature music for guitar players written in tab, and playing those songs is the best way to become a better player.
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